Cane farmers in Uttar Pradesh on warpath over prices

Thu, Nov 5 07:26 PM

Enlarge Photo A labourer peels sugarcane at a wholesale market in Siliguri in this February 27, 2008...

Farmers in India's top cane-growing state of Uttar Pradesh will not sell their produce to sugar mills unless the government raises cane prices, Ajit Singh, an influential farmers' leader and former farm minister, said.

The government has proposed a 60 percent increase in the price at which sugar mills buy cane, but farmers say the rate should double in line with sugar prices.

"We will disrupt normal functioning by stopping the trains and buses and by blocking all highways," Singh, who heads a regional political party in the state, told Reuters.

Any delay in supply of cane to mills will further squeeze sugar supply, which is expected to fall short of demand for the second consecutive year.

This week, the state government banned the entry of imported raw sugar into the state after farmers protested against the use of raws by local mills.

Preetam Chowdhury, president of a farmers' union in the state said that cane growers were united and would hold back their produce.

(Reporting by Alka Pande; Editing by Malini Menon)

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